Tagged: sales effectiveness

A long time ago, in companies far, far away, B2B marketers marketed and their sellers sold. The former were responsible for guarding the integrity of the corporate logo and generating tons of leads; the sales team was left to their own devices, and expense accounts, if they sold enough stuff. Obviously, times have changed. Contemporary marketers have, for a decade or more, been held accountable less for how...

Traditionally, the B2B customer acquisition process is perceived as a two-dimensional, linear workflow: the mad scientists in product development cook up a brand-new iteration of the solution in their dark laboratory; product marketing launches a revolutionary messaging campaign in the newest, coolest medium; field marketing runs ads, events, and promotions to develop a pile of net-new leads; and then the sales team…closes the deals the same-old, same-old way...

As hard as it might be for some of us old-timers to believe, 2015 represents the exact 30-year mark referenced in Back to the Future Part II. Makes you feel old, doesn’t it? The concept of time, beyond Hollywood’s interpretations of traveling through it, is a core currency among modern B2B marketers and sellers: product developers are under constant pressure to reduce speed-to-market. Marketers are tasked with...

I’m a parent, and have faced that common moment-of-truth debate: should every kid on the soccer team receive a trophy, simply for participating? Should we keep score in Little League baseball? I’m also a capitalist: I believe in healthy competition, coaching for everyone who needs it, and rewards for the strongest achievers. In professional selling, which is my research focus, there are obvious winners and losers: even on...

Ask most B2B sales reps why they won their last deal, and they’ll undoubtedly take sole credit for the win. Query as to the story behind their most recent loss, and the culpability suddenly shifts toward…well, anyone but themselves. And it’s probably due to pricing, right? Let’s look at the data to decide. My newest research includes a simple question for executive respondents: what are the most frequent reasons...

A refined sense of self-awareness or personal reflection is not traditionally associated with the kind of personas attracted to, and successful, in the B2B selling arena. While contemporary sales leaders and individual contributors are far more sophisticated than their predecessors in terms of technological savvy and social media awareness, a pervasive sense of confidence and “I’ve got this” control is still a mindset commonly associated with this job...

The first of this blog series delivered a compelling argument for utilizing CPQ as a must-have component of your sales effectiveness efforts, based on performance results between adopters and non-users. Today, let’s get under the hood of this machine by exploring how the strongest-performing companies in Aberdeen’s research use the solution most effectively. What exactly is CPQ? Aberdeen defines it as “a technology enabler with which selling organizations...

I think it just may be possible that Charles Johnson doesn’t exist. Candidly, I know little about the San Francisco Giants, so I had to look it up, and someone by that name is apparently the principal owner. But after my most intense Dreamforce in six years (one speaking engagement, 35 meetings, two painful feet), I’m convinced that Marc Benioff is most likely the behind-the-scenes maestro, if not...

Welcome to the first of our five-blog journey focusing on the fast-growing niche of Configure / Price / Quote deployments. My job here is to leverage Aberdeen’s objective research findings to detail when, where, and how CPQ is most effectively used to reduce friction in the sales cycle. Your responsibility is to learn, not so much from me, but from your peers, contemporaries, and competitors, whether your sales...

“Everyone is talking about it, but very few are doing it.” The phrase can be applied to all sorts of cultural, comedic, and business scenarios, yet the concept of marrying the highly technical nature of the “big data” frenzy to the Wild West environments of professional sales and marketing cultures seems relatively far-fetched. Or does it? Aberdeen’s Sales Effectiveness research practice has frequently covered sales forecasting with the...

About Aberdeen

Since 1988, Aberdeen Group has published research that helps businesses worldwide improve performance. We identify Best-in-Class organizations by conducting primary research with industry practitioners. Our team of analysts derives fact-based, vendor-agnostic insights from a proprietary analytical framework independent of outside influence. The resulting research content is used by hundreds of thousands of business professionals to drive smarter decision making and improve business strategy. Aberdeen's content marketing solutions help B2B organizations take control of the Hidden Sales Cycle™ through content licensing, speaking engagements, custom research, and content creation services. Located in Boston, MA, Aberdeen Group is a Harte Hanks Company. Images used under license from Bigstock.